Mazzeo: Slumping Yanks can't afford slip-up in AL East so they better find way to break out bats Sunday

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It feels like just yesterday the Yankees were pounding James Paxton in the Bronx.

Aaron Judge and Miguel Andujar each hit two-run homers, while Giancarlo Stanton was robbed of another in a four-run first inning against Seattle’s left-handed ace on Thursday afternoon at The Stadium.

But the Bombers have scored just one run over the following 25 innings since that win — including a pair of uninspired losses to the Rays. On Saturday, they were shut out for the just the second time this season, 4-0, in a pretty lifeless performance against a bunch of Tampa Bay relievers again.

Over a 162-game marathon, it happens. Still, with the Yankees and Red Sox fighting to win the AL East and avoid the do-or-die AL wild-card game, every game matters a lot more than it usually would. That’s just how it is. So it figures that Aaron Boone and his players were more apt to shrug it off than Bombers fans.

“It says June 23 on the clock,” Boone said in his office following the ugly defeat. “We’ve just got to keep grinding at it and have that urgency tomorrow to try and get out of here with one (win) under our belt.”

The Yankees hadn’t lost consecutive games since May 22-23 in Texas, which just so happened to be their last series loss. They are 15-2-2 in their last 19 series overall. “It’s a blip,” Austin Romine said.

The main issue for the Bombers, who haven’t lost three in a row in 2018, has been their inability to hit with runners in scoring position. In their last two games, they’ve gone 2-for-17 in such situations.

“Our goal is to create traffic,” Boone said. “There are times where we’re going to break through, but really for a few weeks now we haven’t had those big outburst games necessarily. We’ve had big innings and when it’s been winning time we’ve come up pretty big. We just haven’t the last two nights.”

Aaron Judge and rest of Yankee lineup is in midst of one of worst slumps of the season with two straight losses to Tampa. (Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)

The Yankees had a couple of opportunities, but weren’t able to cash in. Leadoff doubles by Giancarlo Stanton and Austin Romine in the second and third went to waste. And Stanton struck out with runners on the corners in the sixth.

Inconsistency has plagued several hitters in the middle of the lineup.

Greg Bird, coming off right ankle surgery, is currently going through an awful 7-for-51 stretch. Bird was the Bombers’ best hitter in the 2017 postseason (.938 OPS), and he deserves more than 24 games since his return to show that he can turn it around. Plus, it’s not like there’s anyone waiting in the wings to take his job.

“We’re confident that he’s a dude,” Boone said of Bird before the game in a way only he can. So hopefully he’ll start ‘dude-ing’ up sooner than later.’”

Bird, who was working on making a few adjustments with hitting coach Marcus Thames before the game, is far from the only culprit. Gary Sanchez and Stanton have been below average hitters against right-handed pitching while Didi Gregorius endured an awful May after a phenomenal April.

All of that, and yet the Yankees, riding a pretty good starting rotation (which still needs an upgrade) and an even better bullpen (dominant, in fact), have still managed to win 50 of their first 74.

Advertisement

“I mean, it’s only been two games,” Gregorius said of the losing streak. “I don’t think it’s a really big deal.”

Boone didn’t sound like a manager that was suddenly going to start putting on hit-and-runs or steals, suggesting the Bombers don’t want to just give away outs. “We’ll be selective when we do that,” said Boone, whose team is stacked with home run threats that haven’t been able to go yard the last two games.

Boone should put Clint Frazier in the lineup to try to provide a spark. And maybe even try to put some runners in motion on the basepaths.